Kate Gleason: A Pioneer for Women in Engineering



Kate Gleason: A Pioneer for Women in Engineering

Nicole Varble

Between 1860 and 1890 there were an increasing number of young women enrolling in colleges in the United States. State schools, interested in increasing the number of their students, turned to accepting women. Before 1920 a total of four hundred thirty-nine women were enrolled in scientific disciplines across the country (Rossiter). However, even fewer women were hired by universities and colleges once they graduated. The women in scientific fields were concentrated mostly in the “softer sciences,” such as botany, zoology, and psychology. In the early 1900s, the number of women studying engineering and the demand for women engineers was even lower than in most other fields. Kate Gleason, a pioneer woman in engineering is an inspiration even today. Her profound impact on women’s roles in engineering and her personal power and determination, made her an icon at RIT and an important figure in the history of women in Rochester.

The success of many women pioneers in the disciplines of science and engineering can be traced back to their home lives. Young women desiring to work in scientific fields, like Marie Curie and Kate Gleason, needed a strong support system at home. Gleason was born on November 25, 1865, in Rochester, New York, and raised in an environment that promoted her success by teaching her that despite her gender, anything was possible. Kate was introduced to engineering at a young age. Her father, William Gleason, was the owner of The Gleason Works, a machine tool company, which would later become a pivotal influence in her life. Kate said, “I started reading books on machines and engineering when I was nine” (Weingardt 107). She not only received encouragement from her father, but her mother, Ellen, was an advocate for women’s rights and was known to have close ties with Susan B. Anthony, another prominent Rochester resident. Later in life, when asked about her ties with Anthony, Gleason recalled, “she impressed one fact upon me while I was growing up: Any advertising is good. Get praise if possible, blame if you have to. But never stop being talked about” (Weingardt 108). Unlike many women of her time who “were often deliberately discouraged by negative remarks from family or teachers,” from pursuing technical interests, Gleason was encouraged (Bix 29). Poised with the support and motivation necessary to succeed, Gleason also needed the opportunity to expand her skills and abilities beyond her child obsession.

Opportunity came with the unfortunate death of her half brother, Tom Gleason, in 1877. After that, her father could not afford to keep Kate out of the family business, so at age fourteen she was brought in to The Gleason Works as a bookkeeper. William Gleason was said to “[have] a sympathetic interest in women’s emancipation and an evangelical zeal to acquaint his children--sons and daughters alike--to the marvels of engineering” (Weingardt 107). His passion for engineering was another catalyst for Kate’s eventual success.

Kate Gleason graduated from high school in 1884 and enrolled in Cornell University, becoming the first woman in the engineering program. According to Nancy Bartels’ article, “The First Lady in Gearing,” “higher education was thought to endanger the health of young females” (11). Kate may have been accepted at Cornell due to its being a state-funded university seeking to increase its enrollment by accepting women, or perhaps due to William Gleason’s having exerted his influence. Regardless the reason, Kate’s college experience was cut short when her father called her back to Rochester before she finished her first year to help the struggling family company. Although disappointed, Kate later admitted that withdrawing was “a blessing in disguise” because her real career was then able to blossom (Gleason Corporations).

In 1890, Kate Gleason was officially named Secretary and Treasurer of The Gleason Works, positions she retained until 1913. Her relatively high position within the company was extremely rare for a woman at that time. During her time at The Gleason Works she became one of the greatest forces for its success. She expanded the company business to Europe, personally making several business trips abroad to use her knowledge of engineering and business to sell their produce, the beveled gear. Her father praised her as the traveling salesperson and best financial mind of The Gleason Works. As her reputation grew, she became known as the “Madame Curie of machine tools” (Weingardt 108). Gleason also learned how to succeed by adopting a boisterous attitude and assertive character to match her powerful looks. She learned that in order to be noticed, she had to lower her voice to match the tone of the shouting men around her. She never avoided conflict; she claimed, “To be really happy you can not accept the easy berth; you must ever strike out into new industrial battle grounds.” She was resilient and undaunted by the challenges her work presented (Ross). In addition to working at her father’s company, Kate also occasionally undertook part-time studies at the Mechanics Institute (now RIT) to advance her knowledge of engineering (James). The Mechanics Institute generally educated women in the early 1900s in fields such as home economics, rather than engineering.

In 1914, Kate Gleason left her father’s thriving company to join the bankrupted Ingle Machine Company, with hopes that her financial genius could revive the company. When she joined the company, Ingle Machine Company was making $140,000; by the end of 1917, Ingle was pulling in nearly $1 million in earnings (Weingardt). Kate Gleason’s financial skills were obvious.

The years 1914 to 1920 marked some of Kate Gleason’s greatest successes as a woman in the engineering field. In 1914, she was named to the German Engineering Society. In 1916, because of her prominence, she served on the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. She became a member of the Rochester Engineering Society in 1917. One of her most stunning achievements was her acceptance as the first woman in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; she even served as a board member at age sixty-five at the World Power Conference in Germany. Gleason was fully recognized for her work and unusual achievements. Analyzing articles written about, and awards given to, Kate Gleason, especially in her later years, shows she was granted equal (if not greater) attention because of her gender and her profession. She sat on many boards and was considered a great philanthropist, donating money to both the Rochester Institute of Technology and the woman suffrage movement. In fact, when newspapers credited her with a new design of a gear, which she merely marketed, she wrote The New York Times and asked them to edit the article because she felt it discredited her father and brother.

Later, in a 1926 interview about her success and the struggles of women in engineering, she said, “When I recall stories told to me by women struggling for a place in other professions, I insist that engineers are in a class apart” (Weingardt 109). She continued by asserting that engineering ideas are objectively judged—a good idea is a good idea, no matter if it came from a man or woman, she claimed. Kate’s success in her father’s company and her family’s support, preconditioned her to believe that women were as capable of innovation as men, and were just as equipped with the ability to manage a business. In addition, Kate was particularly competitive, which helped her succeed in such a male dominated field in which she understood that gender was a hindrance. She stated, “My girlish ambitions were fiercely personal. I felt keenly that girls in this world were accorded second place, and I resent being second” (Bennett). Later in her life Kate Gleason worked on housing for the city of Rochester, producing low-cost housing built of concrete. In 1919 she had been granted membership in the American Concrete Institute, one more in her already impressive list of societies and guild memberships (Times Union).

Perhaps the most influential component of Kate Gleason’s success was her personal motivation. She had few female role models in the engineering field to follow. Along with her motivation and the opportunity presented to her by her parents, Kate’s will power and unconventional attitude helped her succeed. Her motto was “If I can I will” (James 51). She was completely consumed by her work and driven in every aspect of it. She never married, held many positions (including president of East Rochester National Bank in 1917), was a national representative for ASME, traveled the world, and worked until her death. She stated, “I want to live until I’m one hundred and work until the last minute” (James).

Kate Gleason died in 1933 leaving behind an estate and $1.4 million dollars. Trustees gave Rochester Institute of Technology eleven acres of her estate, as she wished in her will, along with an estimated $57,000 (in 1951 dollars). In 1998 the engineering school at RIT was named the Kate Gleason College of Engineering. RIT remains the only engineering school in the world named after a woman (James).

Kate Gleason can be considered the most influential woman in engineering particularly, in Upstate New York. Her unconventional attitude and approach to business and engineering made her a pioneer in the field. Kate Gleason paved the way for the growing number of women engineers. Even today fewer than 20 percent of engineers receiving bachelor’s degrees are women, but for those young women, Kate Gleason’s accomplishments are a model of success that Gleason herself never had.

Bibliography

*Bartels, Nancy. “The First Lady of Gearing.” German Technical Magazine. Sept Oct. (1997). pp. 11.

*Bennett, Helen Chirstine. “Kate Gleason’s Adventures in a Man’s Job.” The American Magazine. Oct. (1928). pp. 42-43.

Chappell, Eve. “Kate Gleason’s Careers,” Woman Citizen 10 (Jan. 1926): 19-20.

*James, Edward T. “Notable American Women” Harvard University. (1971):51.

Red Herring. Oct. 19 2007. “Where are all the Geek Women?” Feb. 10, 2008 .

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Rochester Times Union, December 12, 1951.

*Ross, Claire. “Kate Gleason of Rochester: America‘s Pioneer Women Mechanist.” Pictorial Review (Sept. 1919).

Rossiter, Margaret W. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.

*Weingardt, Richard G. “Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers.” American Society of Civil Engineers vol. ? (2005). 106-108.

*Select quotes provided by Jan Gleason: “Quotes from Kate Gleason” From: Gleason home. Received at RIT archives. Feb. 10, 2000. Fax: 716-586-1294

* Sources uncovered in Rochester Institute of Technology Archives

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